My personal blog about international trade, public policy & politics, pop culture, and stuff that probably interests only me

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Your Official Guide to the Real Free Traders in Congress

I know that Cato has an indispensable scorecard on the free traders in Congress, but that usually isn't released until several months after a congressional session ends. In the meantime, let today's roll call vote on the CVD/NME bill (H.R. 4105) be your guide. According to today's vote, there are exactly 39 principled free traders in the US House of Representatives, all of whom are Republicans and many of whom are "Tea Party" freshmen (further destroying that ridiculous "Tea Partiers are ignorant protectionists" meme):

Amash

Bachmann

Broun (GA)

Burgess

Canseco

Chaffetz

Duncan (SC)

Fincher

Flake

Fleming

Flores

Franks (AZ)

Gardner

Garrett

Gosar

Graves (GA)

Hall

Harris

Hensarling

Huelskamp

Jordan

Kingston

Lamborn

Lance

Mack

McClintock

Mulvaney

Nugent

Pearce

Pompeo

Quayle

Scalise

Schmidt

Schweikert

Scott (SC)

Southerland

Stearns

Walsh (IL)

Yoder

Kudos to these Members. Today's vote makes clear (a) just how far the Democratic Party has fallen with respect to trade; and (b) just how difficult trade remedies reform is in the United States, despite multiple court and WTO rulings in support of reform and control of the House by the supposedly "free market" Party.